His subspecialty is inherited heart diseases and heart failure. He developed a research line in translational cardiology, with focus on myocardial fibrosis, biomarkers, the interaction between diabetes and heart failure, and cardio-oncology.
Prof. de Boer is co-author of >600 articles in international peer reviewed scientific journals. In 2022, he belonged to the top 1% of most cited scientists in the field of Medicine (Web of Science).
His main research focus is on fundamental, translational and clinical research in heart failure. In particular, he studied the interaction between heart failure and diabetes, myocardial fibrosis and biomarkers. For this, he founded a research group with skilled and enthusiastic cardiovascular investigators with medical, biological and pharmacological backgrounds. Several of his basic and translational observations were transformed in clinical programs, e.g. the use of oral antidiabetic drugs in non-diabetic heart failure patients and the development of galectin-3 based clinical work-up and treatments.